Where There's A Will

Chapter Sixty

Stone was dozing in the passenger seat, while Burke drove him home, when his radio squawked. The sudden noise woke him with a sharp protest for the pain generated by him sitting up abruptly and being restrained by the seatbelt; his protest took the form of a stream of profanity that lasted for almost half a minute. Once he had calmed down a little, he lifted the radio to his lips, ignoring the amusement he could see in his partner's face, which made him want to either say something or punch him in the arm.

"Stone."

"Nathan, it's John, where are you?" Sergeant Wells asked.

Stone glanced at his partner, whose expression revealed he was wondering what had happened, just like his superior. Neither of them thought for a moment that the radio call signalled anything good, not after the way things had gone over the last few days, and especially that day. "I'm heading home," he answered. "What's up? Has Collins decided I'm not allowed sleep till the case is finished?" he asked in a light-hearted tone.

"You'd better head back to the hospital," Wells said, not a trace of humour in his voice.

"What's up?" Stone repeated the question, certain now that something new had happened, and that it was not something good.

"There's been an attack."

With one ear, Burke listened to what Sergeant Wells was saying, while the rest of his attention was focused on the road ahead. He didn't waste time digging out the light from under his seat, the streets were all but empty, and having the flashing blue light on the roof would not enable him to speed all that much, he was already at fifty miles an hour, and going any faster would be dangerous.

It took less than ten minutes for them to make it back to the hospital, and once there Stone released his seatbelt, threw open his door, and got out, ignoring the pain that such rapid movement caused. His face set, he strode round the car and made for the hospital's entrance, Burke just a pace or so behind him. They were spotted the moment they entered the reception, and were quickly joined by Sergeant Silvestre, who was the senior uniformed officer on duty at the hospital – as the senior officer, prior to the arrival of the inspector, she had been stationed outside Alice Keating's room, a position she had surrendered to a constable, with two of the hospital's security guards a short distance away as backup, while she co-ordinated things and waited for Stone to return.

"Okay, Milly, tell me what's going on," Stone instructed the sergeant. "John said someone attacked Constable Flowers, and tried to smother one of the kidnappers, before escaping."

Silvestre nodded. "We don't know exactly what happened," she admitted unhappily. "Right now all we know for sure is that the alarm went off on the heart monitor attached to the guy with the gunshot wound; Nurse Regan was the first person to get there, reaching the room within moments of the alarm sounding - she found Constable Flowers on the floor, a knife sticking out the back of his neck and a puddle of blood under his head, and a young man standing over the kidnapper, a pillow pressed to the guy's face.

"The would-be killer threw the pillow at Nurse Regan and then barged past her. He took the stairs down, chased by one of the hospital's security guards, evaded another when he reached the ground floor, and ran out through here and round to the car park. He got away," she finished, the frustration she felt at the failure to capture the would-be killer evident in her face, not that Stone could blame her for feeling that way, or for the escape.

"Do we have a description of him, or the car he escaped in?" Stone asked, mentally crossing his fingers.

"The car is a silver Jag, but we only have a partial plate number, John's running it now; as for the guy, I've spoken to Nurse Regan and the two security guards who chased him - he's about six foot, slim to medium build, mid-length brown hair, styled, and he was dressed in smart, dark grey trousers and a smart shirt, purplish in colour. They couldn't describe him any better than that, unfortunately, but there's CCTV footage to be checked through that might help with a more accurate description."

"It's a start," Stone said positively, "especially combined with the partial plate number. How's Constable Flowers, and the guy our mystery man tried to suffocate?" he asked, changing the subject. He wondered who the mystery man might be, and why he had tried to kill the kidnappers. His natural compassion made him ask after the kidnapper who had nearly been killed, but he found himself unable to care on quite the level he knew he should; the man was, after all, responsible for taking a girl from her family and holding her against her will for more than forty-eight hours.

"No real harm done to the kidnapper," Silvestre said in a studiously neutral voice. "Flowers, though, he's lucky to be alive. He was stabbed twice and lost a lot of blood, he's in surgery right now – there's concern that his spine could have been damaged, but we won't know for sure for a while yet."

Stone opened his mouth to respond to that news, before he could, the radio on Silvestre's belt crackled into life and she snatched it up. "Milly, John," the duty sergeant identified himself. "Got a make on your car, it's registered to Mrs Maria Keating, wife of Owen Keating, mother of..."

"Thanks, Frank." Silvestre didn't need her fellow sergeant to finish what he was saying - she knew who Maria Keating was the mother of.

"I think we should have been looking closer to home for our third kidnapper," Stone said, surprised by the speed with which his mind was working just then, given how tired he was.

Burke's brow furrowed as he regarded his superior; it took him a few moments to realise who Stone was referring to, though the bewildered look on Silvestre's face made it plain that she remained in the dark, and when he did he found him disagreeing with the conclusion. "Don't you think it more likely that he tried to kill them because they kidnapped his sister?" he asked. "I imagine that would be the reaction of most brothers, under the circumstances, and it is definitely understandable."

Stone shook his head. "Given the arguments we've overheard the last couple of days between Owen Keating and his son, I can't imagine that Ryan would act in a protective manner towards his sister. The suspicion is that Ryan Keating is on the verge of being written out of his father's will – losing his inheritance would be a very good motive for Ryan to kidnap his sister, he needs the money to maintain the life he's used to.

"Is Owen Keating still here?" he asked, turning his attention back to Silvestre.

"Yes, sir, he should still be in his daughter's room," Silvestre said, struggling to understand what the two detectives were talking about.